Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2014 - 31

About 20,000 trail hikers from across the world
unite, May 16-18, during the Appalachian Trail
Days festival of Damascus, Va., the self-styled
"Friendliest Town on the Trail" (traildays.us).
Damascus, as well, marks the halfway point of the
wildly popular Virginia Creeper Trail, which starts
in nearby Abingdon, Va., a town which holds its
own one-day event, Plumb Alley Day, mixing
crafts, yard sales and bagpipers, on May 24.
Like bagpipes? Well, head to the Smoky
Mountain Scottish Festival and Games, May
16-18, at Maryville College in Tennessee's Blount
County (smokymountaingames.org). You can also
find Gallabrae, a celebration of Scots-Irish descendants, May 30-31, in both downtown Greenville,
S.C., and at nearby Furman University. The WNC
Highlands Celtic Festival happens on June 13-14
at Asheville, N.C. (celticheritageproductions.com).
At mid-summer, get to the 59th annual Grandfather
Mountain Highland Games (gmhg.org), held July
10-13 at MacRae Meadows on Grandfather
Mountain near Linville, N.C. Then, in early
October, watch for the to-be-announced date of the
Highlanders Festival (radford.edu) on the campus
of Radford University in Radford, Va., with athletic
competitions, crafters and music.
For thrills, you can climb a mobile climbing wall,
kayak the South River and marvel at a high-flying
BMX stunt show during the XtremeFest of the
Blue Ridge (540-942-6735), taking place June 7 at
the Constitution Park of Waynesboro, Va.
Next, tune up your fiddle and join the fun in
Galax, Va., on June 13-14 for the Leaf and String
Festival, a celebration of music, art and literature.
The following week, head to the Highland County
Fairgrounds for the Highland Old Time Fiddlers
Convention (540-468-2550) on June 19-22 in
Monterey, Va.
... SLIDE INTO SUMMER ...
On June 21, you can slide into summer by slipping
a few miles off the Blue Ridge Parkway and winding
into Woolwine, home of the annual Virginia
Covered Bridge Festival. Look for crafters, musicians and a petting zoo near the Jacks Creek Bridge
and Bob White Bridge.
Hot air balloons fly high over Wytheville, Va.,
during its annual Chautauqua Festival, June 21-28,
with lectures and art plus concerts along the creekbanks of the Elizabeth Brown Park (wythevillefestival.org).
In the heat of July, you cool off in the Blue Ridge
Mountains of Blowing Rock, N.C., with its Fourth
of July Festival, held on July 5. Later, hit the lakeside
beach of Virginia's Hungry Mother State Park, near
Marion, for the annual arts and crafts festival, spon-

sored by the Art League of Marion (hungrymotherfestival.com) on July 18-20. Then, at the Unicoi State
Park near Helen, Ga., look for the Folk Life Festival
on July 26-27 with demonstrations that range from
spinning to candle-dipping and blacksmithing plus
concerts, games and mountain dancing
(706-878-2201).
One of the biggest musical parties of the year happens at FloydFest, near Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost
170.5, on July 24-27. This four-day celebration in
southwest Virginia bridges the gap between genres
and generations with concerts and crafters (floydfest.
com, 888-823-3787).
The long-running Virginia Highlands Festival
returns to Abingdon on Aug. 1-10, mixing antiques
and art, outdoor treks by boot or boat plus special
shows at the town's Barter Theatre (vahighlandsfestival.org). Another long-running party, the Mount
Mitchell Crafts Fair, blossoms in Burnsville, N.C.,
on Aug. 1-2 with more than 150 crafters (yanceychamber.com).
Follow the Crooked Road: Virginia's Heritage
Music Trail (thecrookedroad.org) for a year of celebrations, including the Carter Fold Memorial
Festival on the first weekend of August in Hiltons,
Va., followed by the Galax Old Fiddler's
Convention, a week-long series of contests at Felts
Park, held Aug. 4-9 (oldfiddlersconvention.com).
To escape the summer heat, on Aug. 30-31, head
for Beech Mountain, where the sky above the milehigh town becomes awash in color with a kite festival
each Labor Day weekend (beechmtn.com). More than
400,000 are expected to watch fireworks at the
Boomsday celebration (boomsday.org) on Aug. 31 in
Knoxville, Tenn., along the Tennessee River. But, hey
- if you want an even bigger crowd, check out the
gigantic flea market and gun show in Hillsville, Va.,
on Labor Day weekend, attracting as many as 500,000
shoppers over four days.
On the second Saturday of September, the bustling
city of Salem, Va., blooms with Olde Salem Days
along U.S. Highway 11 with more than 400 arts and
crafts booths plus other exhibitors (www.oldesalemdays.org). Also on Sept. 13, the courthouse town of
Blountville, Tenn., hosts an upscale craft show, yard
sale and flea market that doubles as a day of heritage
at the heart of the Tennessee Tri-Cities (historicsullivan.com).
Look for Bristol's Rhythm & Roots Reunion,
Sept. 19-21, an all-ages gathering on State Street at the
Tennessee-Virginia border, where die-hard music fans
don't mind braving rain to find music of all kinds:
country, folk, bluegrass, old-time and Americana (bristolrhythm.com). Or go to Pendleton County, W.Va.,
for Franklin's Treasure Mountain Festival, happening
Sept. 18-21, with crafters, a car show and Civil War
re-enactments (pendletoncounty.net).
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 | 31

http://www.hungrymotherfestival.com http://www.hungrymotherfestival.com http://www.traildays.us http://www.floydfest.com http://www.smokymountaingames.org http://www.floydfest.com http://www.vahighlandsfestival.org http://www.celticheritageproductions.com http://www.vahighlandsfestival.org http://www.yanceychamber.com http://www.gmhg.org http://www.yanceychamber.com http://www.thecrookedroad.org http://www.radford.edu http://www.oldfiddlersconvention.com http://www.beechmtn.com http://www.boomsday.org http://www.oldesalemdays.org http://www.oldesalemdays.org http://www.historicsullivan.com http://www.historicsullivan.com http://www.wythevillefestival.org http://www.wythevillefestival.org http://www.bristolrhythm.com http://www.bristolrhythm.com http://www.pendletoncounty.net

Blue Ridge Country - January/February 2014

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